More Details on The Last Guardian Revealed Ahead of E3

By Dalton Cooper 26 May 2016

The Last Guardian game director Fumito Ueda reveals to Edge magazine some new details on the game, including the abilities of the large winged creature named Trico.

Ever since it was announced in 2009, The Last Guardian has been one of the more mysterious projects in development at Sony. Now, seven years after it was originally announced, more details on the game have finally been made available ahead of a likely showing during Sony’s E3 2016 press conference next month.

These details, revealed by game director Fumito Ueda in issue 294 of Edge magazine, mostly pertain to Trico, the large winged creature that appears to be the primary focus of the game. In The Last Guardian, players will rely on Trico to get through the game, mainly by utilizing the creature’s powers for puzzle-solving purposes.

One way this will be accomplished is by manipulating Trico with the main character’s mirror shield. In The Last Guardian, players can use the mirror shield to shine beams of light on objects, and then Trico will respond by blasting that spot with red lightning from its tail. Trico’s lightning blast can be used to destroy objects in the environment, which is necessary to solve the game’s many environmental puzzles.

With such great power at Trico’s disposal, it’s no surprise that the creature is not exactly obedient at first. We saw hints of this in The Last Guardian‘s E3 2015 trailer, with Trico not always seeming pleased with the main character. However, players will see the relationship between the main character and Trico grow over the course of the game, and the creature will eventually be more open to listening to commands later in the story.

Despite this, it seems important for the development team to have Trico retain a fixed personality. For example, since Trico is part cat, it is afraid to jump into deep water. When Trico is afraid, this mood will be reflected by the color of its eyes, and other emotions will also cause a shift in eye color as well. One has to imagine that this will play an important role in The Last Guardian‘s story, especially considering the emotionally-charged Ico and Shadow of the Colossus that preceded it.

These new tidbits of info are the most specific details we’ve received of The Last Guardian in years. The Last Guardian is being kept secretive in an attempt by Sony to keep from ruining the story, but it’s nice to learn a little bit more about Trico’s abilities. Fans should be able to expect to learn even more about The Last Guardian during Sony’s E3 2016 press conference next month – maybe even an exact release date. If The Last Guardian manages to finish development in time for its planned 2016 release, then it will be hard to argue with Sony’s claims of an incredible PS4 lineup this year.

The Last Guardian will be available by the end of 2016, exclusively for PlayStation 4.